ACOSA from the 2002 APM BUILDING COMMUNITY AND … · ACOSA from the 2002 APM PRESIDENT’S REPORT Symposium and Meetings Updates by John Morrison, ACOSA President BUILDING COMMUNITY

ACOSA from the 2002 APM PRESIDENT’S REPORT Symposium and Meetings Updates by John Morrison, ACOSA President

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Volume 16, Issue 1

Spring 2002

The ACOSA symposium and annual meetings held in Nashville in February reflected a new level of development for our Association. Each of the Association’s committees func-tioned effectively during the past year and are developing written policies and procedures that will be included in an ACOSA manual which will assure continuity and efficiency for the future. Both board and membership meet-ings were well attended, productive and iden-tified new ideas that will advance ACOSA. The Nominating Committee under Lee Staples leadership identified a fine slate of ACOSA leaders and conducted the election in a very professional fashion. Symposium Co-Chairs, Mary Rogge and Sarah Kreutziger developed a wonderful program. The presentations were of high quality and the special programs, which featured Tennessee-based social change and justice groups and regional music, were inspiring, informative and entertaining. The Awards Committee chaired by Sondra Fogel, selected Earl Durham, Roslyn Chernesky, Eileen Newman and Sister Mary Alice Mur-phy who have provided impressive service to macro practice. A special program on HUD partnerships identified new resources for macro practice. Again this year the ACOSA booth provided visibility for ACOSA and served as a membership recruiting tool. The ACOSA Update! Newsletter headed by Tracy Soska, Catharine Baratta and Sheila Slemp continues to provide important, timely information in an attractive format. The Journal of Community Practice , sponsored by ACOSA, reflects the growing knowl-edge in our field. The founding editor, Marie Weil, who has lead the journal with great distinction for the last dec-ade, has informed us that she would like to step down from her position. A committee headed by Cheryl Hyde will recommend a new editor. Alice Johnson, who has completed her term as Treasurer, has accepted the board’s appointment as Coordinator of Operations and Administration.

This unpaid position will assure that there will be continuity in a variety of vital ACOSA activities. The appointment also recognizes Alice’s tireless service to ACOSA. ACOSA finances are sound and stable; membership and financial records well maintained and subject to regular review. The ACOSA website has had changes and im-provements. Journal of Community Practice issues should soon be on line for members. Arrangements have been made for transitioning the ACOSA Listserv to the oversight of Karen Gray at the University of South Carolina. In the future we will continue our member-ship base and explore external funding. We

(Continued on page 2)

APM: Symposium Events & Photo Highlights! 2-3

APM: Awards and Recognitions – More Photos 4-5

Community Organizing Column: PPEHRC 6-7

Social Administration: Collaboration 8

2003 Awards: ACOSA Awards Recognition Nominations for 2003 APM

9

Special Feature: Fran Danis - Domestic Violence from a Macro Perspective

10-11 & 13

Editors Notes: Thanks and Recognitions 12

Voices from Practice: Call for Articles 13 Building University-Community Partnerships 14-15

Web Sites: Institute for the Study of Civic Values Assoc. for the Study and Development of Community

15

ACOSA Officers and Contact Information 16

Inside this issue:

Justice and Integrity in “The Time of the Right” Suzanne Pharr, Director

Highlander Research and Education Center New Market, Tennessee

Suzanne Pharr joined the Highlander staff as director in 1999, coming from her long term advocacy and political education work as founder of the multi-issue, multi-racial Women's Project in Arkansas. She is a progressive theo-rist, political analyst, administrator, and organizer for justice in the South and is author of In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation and Homo-phobia: A Weapon of Sexism. For her presentation, Suzanne drew on the work of the Highlander, the Women’s Project, and her more than 25 years of

coalition building around racism, sexism, homophobia, domestic violence, immigrants’ rights, and other justice is-sues. She discussed strategies for and examples of translating social and economic justice goals more fully into the fabric of daily not-for-profit organizational practices such as internal politics, and pay, power, and decision-making structures. Her presentation also explored the challenges of strengthening personal, organizational, and political in-tegrity in an era of conservative, theocratic politics and faith-based organizational initiatives.

Highlights and Photos from the ACOSA in the APM 2002

Page 2 THE ACOSA UPD ATE!

need to be more aggressive in developing relationships with other macro groups and advocating for macro practice. Macro practice is taught in BSW pro-grams and generalist MSW programs by faculty without macro practice experience. Further development of teaching materials for such faculty would assure that teaching is sound and relevant. More regional meetings and other opportunities to serve cur-rent and potential members are needed. Finally I would like to thank members for their continuing support and contribution to ACOSA. ACOSA has been successful because of the work of hundreds of individuals. Thank you!

(Continued from page 1)

ACOSA Board Members: (left to right) • Betty Mulroy • Charles Trent • Susan Murty • Sarah Kreutziger • Marie Weil • Mary Rogge • Terry Mizrahi • John Morrison • Lee Staples

Board discussing Jour-nal of Community Practice and ACOSA’s Strategic Plan.

ACOSA Meetings!

ACOSA Board Meeting

Annual ACOSA Membership Meeting

Special Thanks to the 2002 Symposium

Co-Chairs Sarah Kreutziger, DSW Associate Professor Tulane University Mary Rogge, Ph.D. Associate Professor University of Tennessee College of Social Work

VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1 Page 3

From Appalachia to the Delta, From Then Until Now:

Music and Action in the Struggle for Human Rights

Guy and Candie Carawan with Robert J. [“Bob”] Booker

Representatives of Community Shares and the Southern Empowerment Project joined the ACOSA Celebration.


ACOSA AWARDS AT THE APM 2002 BySondra Fogel - University of South Florida Chair of the 2002 ACOSA Awards Committee

At the 2002 APM, ACOSA recognized four outstanding individuals for their contributions to community organization and social administration practice. This year also marked the first time ACOSA gave awards for an outstanding practitioner and a student. Each winner received a plaque and will have their name included in the Journal of Community Practice.

Prior to the recognition of each winner, his/her nominator introduced the recipient. In heartfelt and illuminating stories, an audi-ence of almost 100 heard about the influence and range of activities that were and continued to be used by each of the winners to create change for diverse populations, communities and organizations. Each awardee also had the opportunity to share their sto-ries and professional wisdom. The winners are:

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: TWO WINNERS. EACH WINNER REPRESENTS A DIFFERENT ASPECT OF MACRO PRACTICE.

Earl Durham and nominator, Chris Valley

EARL DURHAM Nominated by Christopher Valley, Earl Durham has over 30 years of practice experience aimed at social injustices. Since the 1940’s, Mr. Durham has organized and led suc-cessful challenges to situations and conditions of racial inequality. As a long-time social work educator, Mr. Durham has initiated many students to advocacy practice through his continued vigilance to challenge injustices and dedicated mentoring. His writings and presentations focus on issues of race, education, and the community. Having held numerous leadership position in various na-tional organizations, Mr. Durham is also recognized for his dedication to Designs for Change, an advocacy or-ganization to effect change in public schools which he co-founded 23 years ago.

Dr. Roslyn Chernesky with nominator, Dr. Pat Brownell

ROSLYN CHEMESKY, PhD Nominated by Dr. Pat Brownell, Dr. Chernesky has over 20 years of academic and practice experience. As a prolific writer, Dr. Chernesky has added to the social work literature through her investigation of feminist administration models. Her practice work and conceptualization of case management models in the area of HIV/AIDS and older adults has resulted in significant changes in the administration of social work services. Dr. Chernesky continues to provide outstanding scholarly leadership to the field of social administration and advocacy work on behalf of women and vulnerable populations.

Practitioner Award

ACOSA President, John Morrison pre-sents Sister Murphy and her nominator, Dr. Audrey Faulkner with the Practitioner Award.

SISTER MARY ALICE MURPHY Nominated by Dr. Audrey Faulkner, Sister Murphy is rec-ognized for her outstanding work to raise the awareness of the plight of homeless people and the lack of affordable housing in the Ft. Collins area. As a graduate of the MSW program at Denver University, Sister Murphy has worked for the last 20 years utilizing her skills in community or-ganization and social administration to bring together vari-ous stakeholder groups to build shelters, apartments, and an organization to ensure that the most basic human right, that to have a decent home is provided to all. Described as the “go-to person for almost every issue of human dignity and social justice in the county,” the professional efforts of Sis-ter Murphy demonstrate how important social work com-munity building and administration skills are to enhancing the lives and well-being of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

ACOSA AWARDS AT THE APM 2002 An ACOSA Symposium Event

With Our Deep Thanks and Appreciation to Marie Weil for her editorship of the Journal


Student Award Eileen Newman, and her nominator, Dr. Karen Gray EILEEN NEWMAN, MSW student, University of South Carolina Nominated by Dr. Karen Gray, Ms. Newman is rec-ognized for her growing commitment to improving the lives of others through practice and intellectual debate. Ms. Newman asks how social work is ad-dressing the continuing social and economic injus-tices in this society. As a voracious reader, Ms. Newman is drawn to the works of Friere and Alinsky as examples of important discourse needed in the profession. A stay at home mother for 15 years, Ms. Newman entered graduate education ready to fight for justice and work with those popu-lations most forgotten. Dr. Gray insists that Ms. Newman is going to make a difference. Seems she already has.

Marie Weil was recognized at the ACOSA Awards Celebration for her work as Founding Editor of the Journal of Community Practice. Marie announced that she is stepping down as Journal Editor this year.


ACOSA Community Organizing Column By Mary Bricker-Jenkins

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign—Organizing to End Poverty

While we are organizing around TANF reauthorization – as we must -- to reweave what we can of the safety net, it is worth noting that there is a movement building in this coun-try that rises from the ranks of the poor and poses an even greater challenge. The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) has a clear and simple vision – that everyone’s economic hu-man rights be secured in this country. Simply put, that means ending poverty and every other form of economic injustice in America – and, necessarily, be-yond. A program to ensure that would have to emerge from a massive movement based in the unity and leadership of the poor, but including people from all segments of society.

This was the pervasive

theme of the gathering held in New York City from December 8-10, 2001 called “Social Jus-tice Through Human Rights in the USA.” Convened by the Kensington Welfare Rights Un-ion (www.KWRU.org) and The Center for Economic and Social Rights (www.CESR.org), the conference brought together many of the fifty plus organiza-tional members of the PPEHRC network to consider the chal-lenge of coordinating efforts to pursue a common vision. Most of these organizations are led

by people living in poverty, working on a variety of issues, representing a range of organ-izational styles and tactical pref-erences.

The meet-ings began with a con-sideration of the use of the eco-

nomic human rights framework and language for organizing. In the midst of the “war on the poor” – seen in this group as an opening salvo in a larger as-sault on everyone’s rights – it is helpful to remember that there are standards of economic jus-tice toward which nearly all na-tions have subscribed. The rights to food, clothing, and shelter; to health care; to edu-cation and employment – these and others are affirmed in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The ICESCR elaborated these rights as pro-pounded in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States, alone among industrialized nations, has refused to ratify the treaty based on the ICESCR. Never-theless, its provisions are con-sidered customary in interna-tional law; as such they provide a powerful framework for edu-cating, organizing, and building unity among people whose im-

mediate interests and organiz-ing agendas might appear to be disparate.

These possibilities were underscored when groups in attendance presented their current work –examples included Florida’s Immokalee Workers’ Taco Bell Boycott; California’s Women’s Economic Agenda Project’s March for Compassion and Spiritual Renewal; Ohio’s Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Economic Human Rights’ media and internet advances; Pennsylvania’s KWRU housing takeovers, drug war reality tours, and international organizing; Utah’s JEDI Women’s March for Our Lives at the Winter Olympics; the recent formation of POWER, a poor people’s action group in Maine; the persistent local actions of the Rochester Poor People’s Coalition; the Atlantic City Boardwalk rally that exposed the poverty in the midst of the glitz organized by The South New Jersey Citizen’s Action Committee with the Social Welfare Action Alliance.

The major work of the campaign involves groups supporting the work of other groups and all groups undertaking coordinated actions.

The United States, alone among indus-trialized nations, has refused to ratify the treaty ….

RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN ACOSA FOR 2002!

If you haven’t already, it’s time to pay your 2002 ACOSA membership dues. Our membership year goes from January 1 to December 31, 2002. INVITE A COLLEAGUE TO JOIN ACOSA! We can double member-ship in 2002 if every mem-ber recruits just one person to join ACOSA! Send us an email to re-quest a special member-ship outreach packet: [email protected]


Recent coordinated actions include • The March for Our Lives –

February 8th, 2002 (opening day of the Olympics) in Salt Lake City

• The Taco Bell Boycott (ongoing) and Truth Tour (February-March 2002); see www.ciw-online.org for daily updates

Upcoming nationwide actions include • A series of nationwide

hospital vigils and/or sit-ins demanding the right to health care -- May 2002

• The Independent Media of the Poor conference – September, 2002

• A second national New Freedom bus tour – Fall and Winter 2002

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights Day event – December 10, 2002

Education and action are

tightly interwoven in the PPEHRC organizing events, so this gather-ing included several skill-building and cross-cutting educational ses-sions. The University of the Poor – the educational arm of the PPEHRC – demonstrated some of the ways it could advance the work of the campaign’s groups. The Media College, the School of Labor, the Department of Internet Empowerment, the Department of Statistics and Research, The School for Young People and their Allies, the School for Student Organizing, the School for Social Workers, and the School of The-ologies all conducted workshops

or gave reports on activities and developments. Members of the School of Art and Music ensured that the meetings were punctu-ated with unifying poetry and mu-sic. The University is a commu-nity-based, web-centered body through which campaign groups can share experiences and knowledge in the interest of sup-porting each other’s work and building the movement to secure economic human rights. Contact www.universityofthepoor.org.

Although the leadership of the campaign is clearly drawn from the ranks of the poor, social work-ers were present and active. The Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) is an organizational member of the PPEHRC, and several social workers involved with constituent groups were pre-sent as members (not staff or ad-vocates) of those groups. As the movement to end poverty builds, opportunities are available for social workers to participate at the local, regional, and national levels with the members of the network.

• For information about

groups in your area, con-tact KWRU at 215-203-1948, Mary Bricker-Jenkins at [email protected], or Carrie Young at [email protected]

• For information about the

Taco Bell Boycott and when the Taco Bell Truth Tour of the USA will be in or near your town, go to www.ciw-online.org or call the Coali-

tion of Immokalee Work-ers at 941-657-8311

• For information about

other national coordinated events and the Poor Peo-ple’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, contact Cary Beckwith at KWRU, 215-203-1945 [email protected]

In future columns, I will pro-

file the organizing approaches of many of the member groups in this network. They are cer-tainly many and varied! As I scanned the room last Decem-ber, I could not help but think of the diversity among slaves and their allies in the Underground Railroad – and of the ultimate unity, however fragile, behind

ACOSA Community Organizing Column Continued from page 6

COLLABORATION OR “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?” By Richard Boettcher


Over the past several years the con-cepts of collaboration and multi-agency coalition building have be-come high value terms in the social service lexicon. Foundations indi-cate in their RFP’s that they prefer agency partnerships that will forge new service packages. Child pro-tective services agencies experi-ment with capitated managed care in their purchase of service con-tracts and require that only coali-tions of agencies may apply. United Ways across the country offer new dollars to agencies that enhance services through collabora-tion.

Collaboration and cooperation seem simple enough. After all, if we can stretch existing dollars and maybe add a few shekels by entering into

multi-agency service arrangements that truly benefit client recipients, then we have reached the high pla-teau of “win-win.” Except for one thing: When money is involved, human affairs can get screwed-up pretty quickly and wretchedly. I have been reminded of this painful fact repeatedly over the past year as I have observed approximately 20 mental health agency executives, program managers and consumer groups meet to discuss a project which, if implemented, would re-quire a new pattern of collaboration among the agen-cies represented by these stake-holders. Under the new, pilot arrangement some agencies might gain re-sources, and some might lose a portion of their “market-share” of clients. Sometimes, the meeting dialog sounds as if rival toothpaste companies were talking rather than HSO’s. To make matters worse, the local funding board has an-nounced across the board funding reductions for all service providers whether they cooperate in this pro-ject or not. In general, the con-sumer groups would like to proceed with the project; the professional providers would not. The resis-tance to trying something just a lit-tle different is truly remarkable. This is expressed in passionate de-fenses of the existing system (“If it ain’t broke, etc.”), as well as recita-tions of published research that sup-posedly proclaims the superiority of the existing service system, or the

always politically correct “now is not the time to innovate,” because of declining funding. Occasionally, the rhetoric sinks to the level of personal insults with epithets of “obstructionism” or “turfism” and a few DSM IV missiles thrown around for good measure. My job with the group is to measure the degree of consensus which the group attains and, after a year of trying, the group is about as far apart as ever. At the last meeting, an agency CEO took me aside and said, “It’s not the

differing theo-retical ideology or the lack of data proving that change is needed. This fight is about who is going to get the resources if this project gets off the ground.” So col-

laboration dissolves into competi-tion and coalition building takes a back seat to the pursuit of green-backs. The literature on organizational col-laboration suggests that goal simi-larity is a necessary but not suffi-cient element to achieve high levels of cooperation. In addition to goal similarity, sufficient resources must exist to reduce inter-agency compe-tition. Agencies are more likely to cooperate if they can expect to re-ceive a tangible return on their in-vestments. Those heading down the road of inter-organizational col-laboration need to be prepared to answer – both particularly and gen-erously – “What’s in it for me”?

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION

This column is presented by Dick Boettcher - College of Social Work - Ohio State University [email protected]

“The resistance to trying something just a little different is truly remarkable.”


SEND ACOSA YOUR NOMINATIONS! Plan Now for ACOSA Awards 2003

ACOSA has four award categories. These are: Career Achievement, Practitioner, Emerging Scholar, and Student. Each award represents the variety of constituents that represent our field. All ACOSA members are encouraged to nominate outstanding individuals. The minimal criteria for each category is listed below. For Career Achievement: Nomi-nees shall have contributed to: the conceptual definition of community practice, the empirical knowledge base of the discipline, including re-search methods and finds, the devel-opment of practice methods including work as a practitioner, teacher of methods and or writer, and the dis-semination of knowledge of the disci-pline. For the Practitioner: Nominees must have at least two years of experience in community or administrative practice, be nominated by an ACOSA member who provides a letter of endorsement indicating how this individual is making a difference to community or administrative practice, and have two letter of outside support from individuals familiar with the work of the nominee. For the Emerging Scholar: The nominee shall be a recent Ph.D. and non-tenured, and shall have demonstrated outstanding scholarly potential in an area of community or administrative practice as evidenced by presentations, writings, and/or work from his/her dissertation. For the Student: The nominee shall be either in a BSW or MSW program. In addition, the nominee

must submit a written essay, not to exceed 750 works or three pages addressing the following question: What is the importance of community/administrative practice to the future of the social work profession and our constituents? In addition, the nominator must be an ACOSA member and submit a letter of endorsement for the student indicating how this student is making a contribution to the field. The ACOSA Awards Committee, (Sondra Fogel, Ph.D, Chair, Charles Trent, Ph.D., Jean Hyche-Jackson, Ph.D., Deborah Page-Adams , Ph.D, and Amy Turnbull-Khare, MSW) worked diligently over the year to review all the out-standing nominations. In addition, the Committee discussed ways to assist nominators with compiling packages that represent the out-standing work of each candidate. The following are some recom-mendations: • Decide to nominate someone.

We are all surrounded by indi-viduals and students who every-day and making a difference. Think about it, notice it, and “just do it.”

• Talk to others about your nomi-nee. Enlist their support in writing detailed letters of support.

• Provide a comprehensive over-view of the nominee. Each pack-age is enhanced when a letter from the nominator is provided that speaks to the professional contributions as well as the per-sonal motivations that the candi-date has encouraged.

• Provide a brief biography of the nominee.

• Include a recent vita of the nomi-nee that has a current address, phone number and/or email ad-dress.

• Attach a few samples of recog-nized work.

• Include your name, phone, and email address, as well as those that will be writing supportive letters.

• Hard copies of all materials are greatly appreciated as copies are made for distribution to Commit-tee members

Nominations for the 2003 ACOSA awards will be accepted beginning in September through November 2002. Look to the ACOSA web-site for more information. If you have any questions, please contact Sondra J.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR

2002 ACOSA AWARD WINNERS

(left to right) Eileen Newman, MSW, Sr. Mary Alice Murphy, Earl Durham, Dr. Rosyln Chemesky


Edited from a presentation given at the "Macro in the Millenium" Symposium at the NASW Conference, November 2000. Before I begin, I want to give you a thumbnail sketch about my background. I’ve been a practicing social worker for at least 24 years, 22 of those years have been spent working in the domestic violence movement. I worked as an organizer and the founder of a domestic violence program in Texas and was involved with the Texas Council on Family Violence, the statewide coalition of domestic violence shelter programs doing policy work. I’ve been on the board of a local grassroots rural shelter and have now evolved my practice into teaching and research and evaluation in the field of domestic violence. In many ways the development of the second wave of the feminist movement and my personal development as a social work professional are intertwined. One of the reasons I was excited about participating in this particular panel discussion, is that I wanted to address the myths about working in

the domestic violence field. Myth number one is that if we just provide counseling to all the battered woman who need it, they’ll see that their safety is at stake; they’ll leave their

abuser; they’ll find a safe place to go; and that’ll be the end of the problem. Many of us in social work are still looking at domestic violence as an interpersonal problem rather than framing it within the broader discussions of violence in our community and violence in the world. There are many structural reasons why women stay and these are challenges for us to address. For example, the lack of affordable day care and housing may be some of the practical reasons women don’t leave. I think that the second myth about addressing domestic violence is that it’s mostly the work of people who work in community-based domestic violence programs. And by the way, people who work in those programs don’t call themselves “caseworkers”. They call themselves “advocates” for the most part, having embraced the community change perspective in doing this work. Because battered women and their children have multiple service needs, all social workers in all different fields of practice need to know basic information about safe screening, assessment and appropriate referral. The numbers are staggering. Lifetime prevalence of domestic violence could be as high as 25-50% depending upon which study you look at. In the course of a year, 1.4 million women could be affected and need services relating to domestic violence. I’m using the term “battered women” because I personally take a gender-violence perspective. In the vast majority of

cases, in fact 95% of reported cases are situations of male on female violence. We are not saying that men are not battered, or that women are never the primary aggressor, certainly that is the case with same-sex relationships, but I want to talk about the majority of situations. When you look at the handout “The Continuum of Caring” we can identify all of the different services in the community that someone who’s experiencing violence may

need. Women can enter this delivery system at any point in the network. What’s really exciting is that you’ll find social workers in just about all of these different fields of practice and institutions in our society. In fact, social workers are the most common group that domestic violence survivors or victims will come into contact with. And, therefore we all need to have some basic information. The myth that domestic violence is an interpersonal problem and that it is a social work clinician’s job to address domestic violence needs further exploring. In fact, it is, I think, our macro skills that are most important in dealing with

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FROM A MACRO PERSPECTIVE By Fran Danis—University of Missouri

Many of us in social work are still looking at domestic violence as an interpersonal problem rather than framing it within the broader discussions of violence in our community and violence in the world.

Special Feature

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FROM A MACRO PERSPECTIVE (Continued)


domestic violence. For the past twenty-five years advocates in the battered women’s movement have used a variety of community-practice models that resulted in better public awareness about the issue, stronger criminal laws that hold batterers more accountable for their behavior, and the recognition that “behind closed doors” is a community problem that has consequences for all society. We now have increased federal, state, and local funding for shelters, programs and crime victims as a whole. We were very pleased that the federal Violence Against Women Act II was finally reauthorized, so that services and money can continue to flow from Washington to the states and directly to service providers and state coalitions. We’ve seen new and expanded services for battered women, child witnesses to domestic violence and for batterers themselves. Many communities now have “kids exchange” programs where parents can exchange children or have visitation in a safe, neutral, and supervised environment. These programs are a direct outgrowth of the battered women’s movement. And we’ve seen better training for law enforcement and other entities in the criminal justice system. We’ve seen a lot of training for providers in the healthcare arena.

One of the things we learned deal-ing with the police and prosecu-tors and sheriffs offices and courts and probation is that the criminal justice system is a collection of independent entities with inde-pendent leadership, independent

leadership styles and so forth. Some-times they can manage to put aside their turf issues and work together to enforce laws that hold batterers ac-countable. But at worst they’re a col-lection of warring city-states of the 11th and 12th century. Organizing and pulling those folks together for a common purpose has been a chal-

lenge. In the early days of this movement, when we talked to the police, the court system, and the prosecutors, they were all pointing their fingers at each other. “I would prosecute if only police made ar-rests.” “I would arrest if the DA’s office would prosecute.” The DA says, “The judge will just dismiss it, why should we even bother?” Or she will drop the charges. So what we’ve really learned out of that ex-perience is the need to develop what we call “a coordinated community response” to domestic violence. This recognizes that no one entity, work-ing alone, no matter how hard, can solve the problem of domestic vio-lence by themselves. The blue hand-out, “Coordinated Community Ac-tion Model” shows that everyone has a role to play in this particular area: in the justice system, to hold batter-ers accountable, in the healthcare system, to do universal screening. The media can spotlight the issue and draw attention to the dynamics of domestic violence and not glorify violence and violence against

women. The education system can help through informed teachers, counselors, and, of course, school social workers.

School social workers have a very important role to play in this arena. First, we know that witnessing do-mestic violence has tremendous impact and consequences for chil-dren, which can interfere with their ability to succeed in school. So school social workers must con-sider witnessing domestic violence as an underlying issue especially effecting chil-dren who are acting out ag-gressively (externalizing behaviors) or exhibiting inter-nalizing behav-iors such as be-ing withdrawn and depressed. Secondly, when the battered women’s movement began to do prevention work about 10-12 years ago, they jumped over the colleges and went right into high schools. And, lo and behold, it wasn’t pre-vention work; we discovered this whole phenomenon of teen dating violence. School social workers have an important role in providing services to teens already in violent dating relationships and help stu-dents learn about healthy relation-ships. In Austin, Texas where I’ve been for the past 15 years, the local domestic violence and sexual as-sault agency, SafePlace, has been working with the school district to develop an anti-bullying and sex-ual harassment program that tar-gets students in the 5th grade. The

(Continued on page 13)

So what we’ve really learned out of that experience is the need to develop what we call “a coordinated community response” to domestic violence.


Special Thanks to ACOSA Symposium

Volunteers


ACOSA Symposium Co-Chair, Mary Rogge with University of Tennessee Student Volunteers

CONGRATULATIONS to Alice Johnson who was appointed ACOSA’s first Coordinator of Operations & Administration

This issue of ACOSA Updates! marks the first quarterly cycle of the newsletter. Four issues in one year...another ACOSA milestone!!A little late - due to the untimely departure of our long– serving (unpaid) layout editor, Sheila Slemp, whose outstanding contri-butions and improvements to the Newsletter will be sorely missed. Like so much of ACOSA, this newsletter is truly a group ef-fort:strong support from Associate Editor, Catherine Baratta; a solid cadre of feature columnists who try to keep our membership up on the latest ideas and trends in the field; exciting and much appreciated con-tributions from practitioners in the field; and, of course, the guidance and support of key staff (unpaid) people like Alice Johnson and Sheila Slemp. In looking back on our first set of four newsletter in one year, I am grateful to these many collaborators. Thank You. That this publication has gotten out in spite of heavy teaching and work loads, computer crashes, house fires, relocations, resignations, and the even more difficult, family ill-nesses and deaths is truly amazing.

This has been an important year for ACOSA, and this issue of the news-letter captures many of these key transitions: • Marie Weil announcing her

plans to step down as founding editor of the Journal of Com-munity Practice.

• Alice Johnson being appointed to ACOSA’s first staff (albeit unpaid) position as Coordinator of Operations & Administra-tion.

• ACOSA having its program incorporated into the 2002 APM — remember when we were fighting to even have con-trol of our own symposium?

What an exciting APM it was, too. Trying to capture all the activities on camera for the Newsletter and keeping up with the many sympo-sium sessions and special events was a real challenge this year. Benson Chisanga spent hours staff-ing the ACOSA booth and recruit-ing new members. With Mary Rogge juggling all the talented en-tertainers, volunteers, and visitors and Sarah Kreutziger running from coordinating sessions, to presenting sessions, and then facilitating events, I have never seen program Co-Chairs busier.

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR By Tracy M. Soska - University of Pittsburgh

Special Thanks and Best Wishes to Sheila Slemp for her long and outstanding role as Layout Editor for the ACOSA Newsletter!!!

They will be a tough act for Elizabeth Beck, Chris Valley, and Fred Brooks to follow for Atlanta 2003. (Our Atlanta planners will have a preview in next issue.)

It has been a pleasure serving as Editor for the Newsletter, and while it has been a steep learning curve - especially this issue when I had to press my son into duty as guest layout editor and word pub-lisher tutor upon his return from college - it has provided an up close look at our organization and the many members who work so hard to make it work for all of us. Our progress as seen in our pres-ence within the CSWE-APM is no accident

CALL FOR PRACTITIONER CONTRIBUTIONS The ACOSA Update! is looking of for articles contributed from the

field of community organization and social administration practice by

our colleagues in the practice community. ACOSA encourages other

practitioner-colleagues to share their knowledge and ideas within the

ACOSA community. Please submit articles and news to editors: Tracy

Soska at [email protected] or Catherine Baratta at [email protected]

idea is what does a batterer look like at 11 years of age? He may look like a bully who just pulled up the skirt of a female student. Or maybe he has pulled a girl’s hair. Teachers and other adults reinforce the use of vio-lence by saying to girls who com-plain, “Oh he wouldn’t be bothering you if he didn’t really like you.” How many girls have heard that over and over and over again? What mes-sage are adults sending? The mes-sage that girls hear is that violence and harassment is something boys do to show their love so don’t complain about it. The school social worker may be the first adult that will listen

to the girls’ con-cerns and send a message about the inappro-priateness of this behavior. I

can’t emphasis enough the important role social workers have in address-ing domestic violence in schools.

While the role of the social worker within educational institutions is im-portant, social workers can play an important role in developing coordi-nated community responses. Our expertise is needed as organizers, planners, advocates, case managers and coalition builders to participate in and to develop collaborations.

There are a couple of community or-ganizing initiatives going on right now. The Family Violence Preven-tion Fund (http://endabuse.org/), based in San Francisco, has devel-oped with the help of the Allstate Foundation, an “In Your Neighbor-hood” organizing kit to help people engage local communities against domestic violence. Since abused women often turn first to informal

(Continued from page 11) helping systems it’s important to mo-bilize awareness and support among neighbors and friends. We need to stop avoiding discussions about abuse with our neighbors and co-workers because we don’t want to embarrass them. They’re a lot more embarrassed when they’re standing on charges for murder. So, this pro-ject is about building the commu-nity’s capacity to respond to domes-tic violence.

The Women’s Center of South East-ern Connecticut has developed an-other community organizing project. They have developed a “Hairdressers Against Domestic Violence” project. This is a wonderful project that trains hairdressers to screen for domestic abuse and refer women to the local domestic violence agency. They train hairdressers on how to ask the question, how to be a good listener and how to refer.

The last thing I want to mention is that we need to concentrate on our efforts on our workplaces as well, especially those of us who work at universities. At the University of Texas at Austin, we pulled together representatives from the Dean of Stu-dents office, the UT police depart-ment, the student Health Center, Stu-dent Housing, the Employee Assis-tance Program, the Women’s Center, International Student Office, the stu-dent Mental Health and Counseling Center, SafePlace (which is our local community-based domestic violence

and sexual assault program); and the “Men Against Rape” student group. We brought these student groups and organizations to-gether to develop an intra-organizational coordinating coun-cil on domestic and sexual vio-lence. Is there domestic and/or sexual violence on our campus? Why should our 66,000 students, staff, and faculty be any different than any other community of 66,000? In fact, it’s larger than the community of Denton, Texas where I started a shelter in 1980! The most exciting thing about this project so far is that we were able to come together and de-velop a plan and a grant proposal. They have just received Violence Against Women Act College Campus project funding for over $600,000 for two years to de-velop a comprehensive interven-tion program for victims on cam-pus. I take great pride in being a mother of that, even though I have to start all over at the Uni-versity of Missouri now.

If you’re working as a manager or an administrator, you need to be thinking about workplace poli-cies. This is another area that we’re spending a lot of time on. Women are more and more likely to be stalked at their workplace by someone that they know and have been in a relationship with, or by someone who wants to be in a relationship them. You need


Our expertise is needed as organizers, planners, advocates, case managers, and coalition builders to participate in and to develop collaborations.

Page 14 THE ACOSA UPD ATE! Page 14 THE ACOSA UPD ATE!

One disappointment for ACOSA at the APM 2002 arose when health problems prevented Dr. Barbara Holland, Director of the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) under the U.S. Depart-ment of Housing and Urban De-velopment, from flying to Nash-ville for the closing Special Ses-sion on HUD. Although the ses-sion did present lively discus-sions for the remaining panelists, many in attendance had hoped to learn more about HUD’s Office of University Partnerships and, especially, the Community Out-reach Partnership Centers (COPC) grant program. The COPC grant program was initiated in 1994 as a leading ini-tiative of the Office of University Partnerships with strong support from then HUD Secretary, Henry Cisneros, who championed the important role higher education institutions could and should play in addressing the problems of urban America. With a goal to mobilize college and university resources in response to commu-nity identified needs and issues, COPC programs have been seeded in well over 100 institu-tions of higher education ranging from community colleges to four-year colleges to major research universities. While COPCs origi-nated to bring new resources to urban neighborhood problem-solving, this grant program has evolved into a national effort to institutionalize university-community partnerships at col-leges and universities to ensure higher education maintains a high level of civic engagement.

HUD is the only government agency with a specialized unit linked to higher education, and OUP is traditionally headed by an appointed academic. Dr. Bar-bara Holland was the most recent appointed OUP director - past directors have included Marcia Marker Held, David Cox, and Victor Rubin, and each helped in evolving OUP and COPC into the resources they are today. Dr. Holland’s legacy was the estab-lishment of a permanent staff Deputy Director, and Armand Carriere was recently appointed to that new leadership position. Each year OUP sponsors a na-tional and regional COPC confer-ence; the April 2002 conference was held in Pittsburgh and co-hosted by the University of Pitts-burgh where the School of Social Work is one of two lead schools on the COPC grant. Next year’s conference will be in San Diego in conjunction with the Campus-Community Partnership for Health’s annual meeting. Each year, as part of the HUD SuperNOFA (the current Su-perNOFA is now available) that advertises all HUD competitive grant programs, the Community Outreach Partnership Centers grants in the maximum range of $400,000 are awarded to only 16 institutions. As part of the COPC grant, HUD-OUP also provides a number of New Direction grants to funded existing COPCs for new efforts and enhancements. These grants are highly competi-tive with over a hundred col-leges and universities vying an-nually, and many more working

BUILDING UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: The HUD-COPC Grant Program By Tracy Soska, University of Pittsburgh

to build the community partnerships and institutional commitments necessary to even venture the application process. To those familiar with the COPC, the application is consid-ered a most daunting affair. For those interested, the COPC ap-plication submission is later in June. Fortunately, the Office of Uni-versity Partnerships through its website (www.oup.org) provides a wealth of information to help in developing a COPC applica-tion. Links to every funded COPC and their websites are available as well as all NOFA and application materials. In addition, OUP also posted win-ning proposals to serve as guides to both the serious and uniniti-ated applicant. Also available through the OUP website are various reports, journals, and informational materials as well as related materials and links that promote the concepts of univer-sity-community partnership and university civic engagement. Beyond the COPC grant pro-gram, OUP also now oversees special grant initiatives for His-toric Black Colleges and Univer-sities as well as grants for His-panic and Native American insti-tutions of higher education. In its commitment toward advanc-ing knowledge for solving American urban problems, HUD through OUP also provides a number of grants that support students interested in community development practice and urban research. HUD funds both Doc-

toral and Early Doctoral Dissertation grant programs to support research addressing urban economics and re-lated urban topics of interest to HUD. Another signature program, and one of serious controversy within ACOSA, is the Community Develop-ment Work Study Program (CDWSP) that provides grants for scholarships and paid internships for up to five (5) graduate students in community de-velopment academic programs. Un-fortunately, the primary focus for CDWSP grants are schools of public and urban affairs, and schools of so-cial work are restricted from applying unless part of a dual-degree program with an eligible professional school. (This limitation has remained a sore

spot for both ACOSA and NASW and one that we had hoped to address at the APM. Behind the scenes efforts are being made to

open up this grant opportunity.) Currently only a handful of schools of social work have leadership roles in their university’s COPC, but a number of other social work schools participate in their university COPC in various community outreach ser-vice programs from job training to domestic violence prevention and other social service efforts. For schools of social work looking to en-hance community practice programs, OUP and the COPC grant offer an outstanding opportunity to become part of the growing national move-

(Continued from page 14) ment toward civic engagement and community partnerships in higher education. This concept that more effectively linking community ser-vice with teaching and research seems especially well-suited to the social work and ACOSA educational agenda.


HUD through OUP also provides a num-ber of grants that support students in-terested in commu-nity development practice and urban research. HUD funds both Doctoral and Early Doctoral Disser-tation grant pro-grams to support re-search addressing urban economics and related urban topics of interest to HUD.

After six years of developing vari-ous web sites around the framework of Neighborhoods Online, the Insti-tute for the Study of Civic Values has updated its own web site. You can access the ISCV site at http://www.iscv.org The web site offers resource pages focused on civic values, commu-nity, opportunity, and democracy. It provides easy links to the major ISCV projects: The Social Contract Project, Neighborhoods Online, PhillyNeighborhoods, Welfare to Work Online, and the NonVoters Campaign. Its resource pages in-clude direct links to historical docu-ments now available online that trace the key elements of America's democratic tradition. Above all, the ISCV web site is organized around the principles of civic idealism--the distinct political philosophy that guides all of us who seek to fulfill America's historic ideals through building community, expanding opportunity, and strengthening de-mocracy. Now that the web site has been upgraded it will be updated regularly. If there are links that you believe ought to be on one of our pages, contact: [email protected] Ed Schwartz

NEW WEB SITE: Institute for the Study of Civic Values

NEW WEB SITE: How Communities Have Responded to 9/11

The Association for the Study and Development of Community has continued to compile infor-mation on how communities have responded to the call for justice and greater unity in response to the 9/11 tragedy. According the ASDC President (and ACOSA member!) David Chavis, the site will continue to be updated and expanded, in part, with funds from the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region CFNCR). ASDC will be working with CFNCR and other founda-tions, institutions, immigrant or-ganizations, civil rights groups, public institutions like schools and law enforcement, and com-munity organization to promote unity and justice. This initiative will address issues of social jus-tice, equity, and inclusion in the Washington, DC region through several activities. A new site, unity4justice.net, is under con-struction and will be announced in the near future. Please share this information and if you know of additional community actions or activities, please contact Kien Lee ([email protected]) Find out what's happening to pro-mote social justice at the local level. David M. Chavis Association for the Study and Development of Community 312 South Frederick Ave. Gaithersburg, MD 20877 301.519.0722 (voice)

The Communities Respond site is: http://www.capablecommunity.com/projects/CommResp.html

The Association for Community Organization and Social Administration

Formed in 1987, ACOSA is a registered 501c3 mem-bership organization for community organizers, plan-ners, activists, administrators, policy practitioners, students, and professors. ACOSA members represent a variety of disciplines and professional fields which strive to strengthen community organization and so-cial administration in practice and education.

ACOSA Alice K. Johnson, Coordinator Operations & Administration 20560 Bensley Avenue Chicago, IL 60411 Tel (708) 757-4187

Building Community and Administrative Practice in the 21st Century

I NVITE A COLLEAGUE TO JOIN ACOSA! CONTACT US FOR A SPECIAL

MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH PACKET

Chair John Morrison - Aurora University [email protected]

Treasurer Julian Chow - University of California Berkley [email protected]

Secretary Susan Murty - University of Iowa

ACOSA Officers Editor Tracy Soska - University of Pittsburgh

[email protected]

Associate Editor

Catherine Baratta - Central Connecticut State University [email protected]

Guest Layout Editor

Kasey Soska — Pennsylvania State University [email protected]

Special Reporters

Administration Dick Boettcher - Ohio State University [email protected]

Community Organization

Mary Bricker-Jenkins - Temple University [email protected]

Community Building

Julian Chow - University of California Berkley [email protected]

Field Education

Kathy Armenta—University of Texas-Austin [email protected] and Jean Avera—University of Texas-Austin [email protected]

ACOSA Update!

ACOSA Update! is published quarterly by the Association for Community Organization & Social Administration (ACOSA).

Chair– Elect Cheryl Hyde, U. of Maryland-Baltimore [email protected]

Coordinator of Operations & Administration

Alice K. Johnson—University of Illinois at Chicago [email protected]

ACOSA from the 2002 APM BUILDING COMMUNITY AND … · ACOSA from the 2002 APM PRESIDENT’S REPORT Symposium and Meetings Updates by John Morrison, ACOSA President BUILDING COMMUNITY

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